abstract

The new photomask registration and overlay metrology system PROVETM at Carl Zeiss has been developed and already delivered to customers to meet the increased industry requirements for pattern registration tools in terms of resolution and in-die measurement capability. Main drivers of the tool performance specifications are double exposure and double patterning approaches which will help to extend the 193nm lithography platforms while keeping the semiconductor industry conform to ITRS roadmap requirements. To guarantee the demanding tool performance, PROVETM features highly stable hardware components for the stage and environmental control. Moreover, sophisticated image analysis algorithms as for instance correlation methods have been developed to overcome limitations of standard approaches. In this paper we focus on mask-to-mask overlay metrology as one of the critical components of modern lithography. To achieve the challenging requirements with the PROVETM tool, an overlay reproducibility budget is prepared that takes into account stage, image analysis and global effects like mask loading and environmental control. The corresponding parts of the budget are quantified by means of PROVETM overlay measurements, performed on typical box-in-frame structures. This allows the identification of critical error contributions and the corresponding improvement strategies. In particular, it will be shown, that the new developed correlation methods of PROVETM will significantly reduce image analysis and camera noise contributions.

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Shibboleth is an access management service that provides single sign-on to protected resources. It replaces the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.

Shibboleth is an access management service that provides single sign-on to protected resources. It replaces the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.

Shibboleth is an access management service that provides single sign-on to protected resources. It replaces the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.

Shibboleth is an access management service that provides single sign-on to protected resources. It replaces the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.

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Shibboleth is access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. It replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.